ABSTRACT
Imagine yourself in this situation, which actually occurred at the University of Arizona a few years ago. It is midsummer, and you are moving into your new office as the just appointed administrator of a comprehensive writing program. You receive a phone call from the provost. He would like you to give a presentation to his ad hoc curriculum committee on how writing across the curriculum can replace required first-year composition courses. About eight thousand students take first-year composition courses in your program each year. The program administrator you are replacing is out of town for the summer, and the chair of the English department is out of the country. You do a little research and find out that this group of deans and senior professors has been meeting over the summer outside regular planning structures and will make a proposal to overhaul general education at summer’s end. What do you do?
